What A Day - Trump Is Getting Nervous

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

Today marks one decade since 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown's death at the hands of a white law enforcement officer ignited social unrest worldwide and led countless activists to demand an end to police violence.Former President Donald Trump held his first news conference since Vice President Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. True to Trump fashion, the hour-long conference was jam-packed with intentional mispronunciations of "Kamala," attacks on VP Harris's intelligence, incessant rambling, and lie after lie.And in headlines: VP Harris addresses the United Auto Workers in Detroit, ABC presidential debate set for September 10, continued fighting in Russia following Ukraine's surprise offensive attack, and Team USA's Noah Lyles wins a bronze despite COVID.Show Notes:Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday   

It's Friday, August 9th. I'm Traeval Anderson. And I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And this is What A Day, the show where we are taking in the news that the Trump campaign will not be commenting on the viral meme that alleges VP nominee J.D. Vance had sex with a couch. That's all right. They don't have to. We, on the other hand, are happy to keep talking about it. Yeah, we are not going to couch our feelings on that one. It's funny stuff, guys. On today's show, Ukrainian forces gain more ground in Russia.

Plus, it's a date. Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Harris have settled on plans for their first debate. But first, Trump gave his first news conference since VP Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate earlier this week, and it was a doozy. In true Trump fashion, the hour-long conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort

was jam-packed with a bunch of things, including intentional mispronunciations of Kamala, racist attacks, attacks on her intelligence, incessant rambling, and of course, lie after lie after lie. We made a big cut for you just to get a load of it for yourself. Take a listen. She's not doing any news conference. You know why she's not doing it? Because she can't do a news conference. She doesn't know how to do a news conference. She's not smart enough to do

a news conference. I think that abortion has become much less of an issue. I think it's actually going to be a very small issue. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more. If you look at January 6th, which a lot of people aren't talking about very much, I think those people were treated very harshly. When you compare them to other things that took place in this country where a lot of people were killed, nobody was killed on January 6th. Whether it's Indian or black, I think it's very disrespectful to both. To me, it doesn't matter. We are going to start the largest mass deportation

in the history of our country because we have no choice. It's not sustainable. She's a woman. She represents certain groups of people. The Democrats are really the radical ones on this because they're allowed to do abortion on the eighth and ninth month and even after birth. If she becomes president, our country is going to be a giant fail. It's going to fail. It's going to be a failure the likes of which this world has never seen any time you attempt to compare yourself to martin luther king jr just maybe don't maybe don't do that i'm gonna need him to keep mlk's name out of his mouth please and thank you first and foremost okay not to mention all the other foolishness. Okay. That was a light cut. There's a lot more. So he couldn't fit in.

So many lies, but one thing remains true through all of this. There was a new poll out from Ipsos on Thursday showing Vice President Harris leading Trump by five points. So I don't think he's liking the looks of that. It seems pretty evident. The K-Hive is growing, Priyanka. Okay. We are all in the coconut tree. What can we say?

I think it's also, you know, as the meme goes, important to view that conference in the context. Donald Trump is so used to dominating the political conversation and news coverage. But in the time since President Biden stepped aside from his re-election bid

and gave his support to Vice President Harris, she has had all this momentum. She's getting coverage, attention, loads of money, really positive reactions on social media and in real life from all of these voters who come to these rallies. And by all accounts, there is so much new energy and enthusiasm that is animating Democrats that just wasn't there a few weeks ago. Another big thing for Trump, as you heard here, is crowd size. It's what prompted this unhinged MLK Jr. remark

in the first place. But that fixation goes way back for him to the earliest days of his administration. And as we're seeing, the crowds that Harris and Walz have been drawing are definitely getting to him. And for their part, the Harris campaign responded to the attacks with a press release titled, quote, Donald Trump's very good, very normal press conference. If you are familiar with Drill from Twitter, they put a screenshot of one of his tweets at the top. It reads, quote, and another thing, I'm not mad. Please don't put in the newspaper that I got mad. They just continue to successfully troll the world's biggest troll. And not only that, they went on to fact check the lies. They called that appearance what it was, a quote, public meltdown. I, for one, find it

deeply satisfying to see this team respond so adeptly to Trump when he goes off the rails like this. No one seemed to be able to do it before. No one knew what to do, but they hit the right tone every single time. It's really fun to watch, honestly. Absolutely. It keeps me super entertained. So thanks for that, Priyanka. In other news, today also marks 10 years since Michael Brown Jr. was killed. Back in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, Brown, a black 18-year-old, was fatally shot by a white police officer named Darren Wilson. As his body lay in the street for four hours, social unrest ignited nationwide, giving way to the slogan, hands up, don't shoot,

and continued calls against police violence spearheaded by the Black Lives Matter movement. Following three different investigations, the latest led by recent primary winner who bested Cori Bush, attorney Wesley Bell, Wilson was not charged for Brown's death. Here's Michael Brown's father, Mike Sr., speaking to the local Fox News station KTVI-TV St. Louis this week. Ten years. Just never forget Mike Brown. Mike Brown was dehumanized as a person. He had a family. I'm his father. He got siblings. You know, he has a mother, he has a stepmother, he has a grandmother, he has two grandmothers that are still alive. You know, people love them. And we will always raise him up high. How is the community commemorating

this anniversary? Well, in addition to residents placing flowers, stuffed animals, and other items at the site where Brown was actually killed. There's also an art exhibit running through Sunday put on by the Chosen for Change Foundation, an organization Mike Brown Sr. founded to, quote, turn his pain into purpose. The exhibit is called As I See You, and it features photos, videos, books, and other mementos, including Mike Brown Jr.'s high school diploma that the Brown family hopes will further humanize their loved one. Here's Cal Brown, co-founder of Chosen for Change and Mike Brown Jr.'s stepmom. I just wanted to create a space not only for community, but for people to really see who he was.

Absolutely. And incredibly important too. He's become a symbol for a movement in many ways, but was also a very real person with real interests and family and all the same things that all of us sort of share. And as you mentioned, Michael Brown Jr.'s killing 10 years ago inspired a lot of protests and organizing. But has policing actually changed in the last decade? What have we seen? Yeah. So I think for so many people, it feels like much has not changed. Just last month, for example, a Black woman named Sonia Massey was killed in her own home by police in Illinois. But I actually like what DeRay McKesson had to say to this question. DeRay, of course, is one of the activists who were on the ground in Ferguson that became a national

figure as a result. He also hosts Crooked's pod Save the People. This is what he said to NPR's Michelle Martin. So when I think about how this will actually happen, it will be in cities and states. And I think that people have been looking for like the national silver bullet, as opposed to understanding that the best version of the change will be a 50-state strategy. That is just how policing is set up, and it will be at the city level. I think people misunderstand that because it accelerates a little bit these big national wins. So he's saying, right, that absent a major countrywide

win in the movement, such as voting rights, it might always feel like change hasn't or isn't happening. And that by pointing the focus of organizing locally, that is how we continually work toward a world where policing looks different than it does right now. That's the latest for now. We'll get to some headlines in a moment. But if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and share it with your friends.

We'll be back after some ads. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. Vice President Kamala Harris continued her tour of battleground states in Michigan on Thursday. She and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz stopped in Detroit to address the United Auto Workers Union and emphasize their support for workers' rights. Even if you're not a member of a union, you better thank unions. That five-day work week. You better thank unions for that eight-hour work day. You better thank unions for that vacation time. The UAW endorsed Harris for president late last month, shortly after President Biden exited the

race. UAW President Sean Fain spoke at Thursday's event about the stakes of this year's election and took shots at former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. They spent their lives serving themselves, representing the billionaire class and enriching themselves at the expense of the working class. I mean, absolutely. And we saw throughout President Biden's presidency how he positioned himself as the most pro-union president in history. And it's very clear that Vice President Kamala Harris wants to continue that in her own run and hopefully in her presidency.

Place your stress ball orders now because Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have agreed to debate on September 10th. Trump spoke about the debate at the press conference he mentioned earlier, and host network ABC later confirmed that both candidates would attend. ABC had originally scheduled a debate on September 10th between Trump and President Biden. Trump referenced two other upcoming debates with Harris at his press conference, one with Fox News on September 4th and another with ABC on September 25th. But Harris pushed back, telling reporters later in the day that she would discuss the possibility of an additional debate

only after the debate on September 10th. Ideally, none of us will be thinking about future debates at that point because we will be in such a state of euphoria from watching Harris demolish Trump on national TV that we will have lost our grip on time and space. I know we can't count our chickens, but we can hope we can hope. OK, it's like we're sitting there hoping for a snow day. But like instead of snow day, but like instead of a snow day, I wanted to be lives in the street, doing a pot of pants, celebrating and feeling something for once. Russian and Ukrainian forces entered their third day of fighting following Ukraine's

surprise offensive attack on Thursday. About a thousand Ukrainian forces pushed into Russian territory earlier this week, crossing several miles into the country's Kursk region. Local officials say thousands of residents have been evacuated from the area amid the attack. The Kremlin claimed on Thursday that its forces had stopped Ukraine's advances, but evidence suggests that Kiev is actually gaining ground in the region. Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on the Kursk attack directly, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made remarks on Thursday praising his country's military and its ability to quote-unquote surprise. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine's attack a quote major provocation in the war. Meanwhile, world leaders worry that the embattled country may not have enough resources to sustain such a bold offensive.

This podcast is going for gold in the event called Short Daily Recaps of the Paris Olympics, aka our favorite part of the program. Here are a few big takeaways from Thursday's contest. American sprinter Noah Lyles was expected to dominate in the 200-meter final, but he ended up taking bronze behind first and second place finishers Letzila Tabogo of Botswana and Team USA's Kenny Bednarik. Afterwards, Lyles revealed he had tested positive for COVID on Tuesday, which explains why he celebrated finishing the race by immediately lying down on the track. He was gasping for breath. He did not look great. Hopefully,

his COVID symptoms will go away soon. Olympic officials said that they supported Lyle's decision to compete. That is quite interesting. I would love to hear what everyone else has to say. Separately, wild that he was able to do that with COVID. Also on Thursday, Team USA's Tara Davis-Woodhall won gold in women's long jump. LeBron James and Steph Curry led the U.S. men's basketball team to beat Serbia by just four points, allowing Team USA to advance to the gold medal game on Sunday. And lastly, American

sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Leveroni won gold in the 400-meter hurdles, breaking her world record for the sixth time in the process. If you watch that race, it is like those hurdles aren't even there. She is just, it's like a full sprint. Blink and you missed it. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But I want to go back to Miss Delisle, Priyanka. Let's. Okay. Because why is that man running with COVID? Okay, now I know it's the Olympics.

You get one chance every four years. I get it. You know, but. I sort of see what's enticing about it but i don't know i agree with you and he still got bronze it's amazing that he got a bronze i feel bad for everyone else obviously because they're like next to this guy with covid it feels worse in a way to do that to everybody else and kind of be like well i could have won if i didn't have covid well i'm sure the gold medal and silver medal winners

are not worried about that man and his COVID, okay? They said thank you for your COVID, all right? Yeah, maybe they're happy. I don't know. We'd have to ask. Also, when you're not watching the Olympics, make sure you go outside and look up. It's time for the annual Perseids meteor shower,

which is at its peak this weekend. I don't quite know where I'm going to go, how far I can get away from the city to be able to see this, but I would like to. Yeah. Do you have plans to watch this, Trayvon? I don't know. I don't particularly like the outside. Mosquitoes, things.

Not for me. Not for me. It's just too much going on. But, you know, come on. A meteor shower? How often do you get a chance to see one? I've actually never seen one. I would love to.

Exactly. Y'all go look up now, okay? And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Been thinking about signing up for Crooked's Friends of the Pod? Now is the time. Join Pod Save the World's Ben Rhodes next Tuesday, August 13th at 3 p.m. Pacific for a round of Ask Me Anything. Ask him about what it was like working with former President Obama or

ask him about his favorite food. Totally up to you. You can ask him anything. Head on over to crooked.com slash friends to sign up now. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give it up for unions, and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just Team USA's medal count, like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Priyanka Arabindi.

I'm Trevelle Anderson. And learn how to pronounce Kamala's name, Donald. A few random people every now and then, like do you come across like friends who say it the wrong way and you're like, what are you doing? No, no, no, no. Everyone learn how to say it the correct way. Listen, if my country behind can learn how to say it the right way, I know y'all can. Yeah.

I promise. It's been a while. Like we can do this. What a day is a production of crooked media it's recorded and mixed by bill lands our associate producer is raven yamamoto we had production help today from michelle alloy ethan oberman john milstein greg walters and julia claire our showrunner is erica morrison and our executive producer is adrian hill our Our theme music is by Colin Gileard and Kashaka.